Mullen Pinky-Swears: We Don't Bankroll Pakistan's Nukes

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Mullen Pinky-Swears: We Don't Bankroll Pakistan's Nukes

Is Pakistan bankrolling its nuclear expansion with American cash? Official Washington says no - but in a way that's not particularly reassuring.

Last week, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an alarming disclosure: Pakistan, he said, was building up its nuclear arsenal, even as the nation slides toward internal war.

That little snippet of intelligence could far-reaching implications. Since 9/11, the United States has provided around $10 billion in assistance to Pakistan; that figure includes around $80 million to $120 million per month in "coalition support funds," which are supposed pay for keeping Pakistani troops on the frontier with Afghanistan.

So the question is: Has Washington's largesse helped free up funds so Islamabad can obtain more nukes?

That, however, is not a particularly reassuring answer, particularly coming from a guy who says that loose nukes are the "worst downside" of a potential Pakistani implosion. When pressed on the issue yesterday by reporters, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly got a bit huffy.

"Well, I’m not going to address the issue of whether or not the Pakistanis are increasing their nuclear capability," he said. "I think Admiral Mullen addressed that, and so I’ll defer to the Pentagon and to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But the reason why I’m saying, you know, that we shouldn’t connect these dots, that we shouldn’t make this connection, is because this assistance package is for very specific purposes. And we’re going to work very closely with the Government of Pakistan for us to meet our joint goal. We have a joint goal with our Pakistani partner here of helping them reestablish stability. I don’t see necessarily a connection between the two."

Ahem. That sort of non-answer – we gave this money to the Pakistanis for certain military kinds of military assistance, not for nukes – precisely why members of Congress are worried about the administration's request for more aid to Pakistan. Vague reassurances that the package will be "well spent" are hardly reassuring if the extra money is going toward more nuclear weapons that could potentially fall in the hands of terrorists.

It's worth remembering that some U.S. assistance is supposed to prevent that nightmare scenario from happening: The United States has committed roughly $100 million to bolster security safeguards at Pakistan's nuclear facilities. But as the New York Timesnoted, "the billions in new proposed American aid ... could free other money for Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure, at a time when Pakistani officials have expressed concern that their nuclear program is facing a budget crunch for the first time, worsened by the global economic downturn."